Did I choose the wrong SMT game as my introduction to the series? The game was very intriguing at first. The press-turn system was interesting, and the difficulty had me fairly tense. Minotaur fight was peak and I enjoyed the Medusa fight too... but the game seems to drop the ball after that.
The difficulty just completely tanks, or maybe I just understand the press-turn system and realized there isn't much to it. The boss loop is either spam weaknesses or spam debuffs, never really a threat.
Are all the SMT games like this, or did I just choose a shit game to try as my first?
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SMTIV is really bad about the Tutorial (Naraku) being the hardest part of the game. It isn't that great of a game anyway, but it was a lot of 3DS kids first experience with the series.
You should emulate Nocturne, and if that doesn't click with you than the series might not be for you.
>SMTIV is really bad about the Tutorial (Naraku) being the hardest part of the game.
Well that's a huge shame. I just killed the Dullahan and I get a feeling i'm not even half way through the game yet. I kind of just want to power through the game, but the fights just feel like tedious wastes of time now that the challenge is non-existent.
I'm trying to finish it for the first time right now and I've been oneshotting random encounters with megido and megidola for ages. Bosses are still a bit threatening just because a smirk crit can make them go thermonuclear against a slapdash team
I'm glad I got the neutral path because I probably won't play it ever again
*Keep in mind the estoma sword ability, the bosses give so much XP you're not going to be too far behind. Plus I frick up and miss with the sword a lot
The biggest problem is that the actual highest difficulty is locked behind NG+ for God knows why. And when you do a repeat of the game you're probably going to want to do it on a new save file so you don't steamroll everything in your path. It's just completely backwards and baffling design. Luckily the direct sequel allows you to choose the hardest mode from the start and even then it's not an easy game when you pick a lower difficulty.
If you don't care about the story of 4 (it's pretty good if you ask me) then skipping forward to 4 Apocalypse is an option. Story is terrible but it fixes every gameplay issue of 4 and the only bad part is a dumb new power of friendship meter (no I'm not exaggerating) that fills automatically and skips the enemy turn when it gets full.
4's story is amazingly boring in practice for being as well conceived as it is
*I think some of it is because it gets ruined by smt alignment shit, like Walter just ceasing to act like a human as soon as he starts to have to run through chaos hero tropes
I can see this point for sure, they funnel him into that role very quickly and it's by design. It's still a great game even though it takes those liberties. That's the thing we all must understand when gaming - the game aspect comes first and foremost, story second, and that is how it should be with this medium. A stellar story and plot with few holes that isn't overly cliched is simply icing on the cake.
>Are all the SMT games like this, or did I just choose a shit game to try as my first?
the first one, kinda
the point of the press-turn system is precisely so that a good player with a good roster of demons can make the game significantly easier for himself.
This anon is correct about the game being fairly easy after the tutorial, but he's definitely wrong about it being "not that great of a game"
SMT4's an okay game, but Nocturne is still the crown gem of the franchise.
SMT1 and 2 are also pretty good.
Long story short: Yes.
Reroll, pick SJ or III or II or even fricking DDS or something. Even the old /smtg/ guide had good entry points and IV isn't a better entry point than a title like SJ or III or I or II even. It has good combat but it's unlikely to hook you narratively in the same way.
I've been meaning to replay SJ and have Redux but my first time through that I did the new stuff and it kind of sucked. Is SJ:R still good if you just skip all the shit they added like commander skills, yukiko, and womb of grief? Or is the original just that different from Redux that this won't work and it's still shit?
You could wait for SMTV: Vengeance to release
*screams in your face every waking moment until its release*
FRICKING WHEN gayGOOOTTTTTT
I SAW THE NVIDIA LEAKS WHERE IS ITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Also upon reading the OP, this anon is right too.
Basically because SMT after IIII is buff/debuff cycle & weakness/alignment exploit. You'll have a hard time at the first few bosses but unless you increase the difficulty, fight the fiends etc, you're gonna be boolying the battle system but you live on a razors edge.
The idea of SMT gameplay is 1 fight you'll stroll in smash all those c**ts and remove their dentistry license. Next fight you could get your shit pushed in and reloading 20 minutes back. Glass canon gameplay is the idea for titles, dungeon crawling or not.
More or less every SMT game is the absolute hardest at its start since you have basically zero strong options, then falls off in difficulty until picking up at the last few bosses if at all.
IV is the worst about this though, the only thing that could ever party kill a competent player is if a boss gets a lucky smirk since smirk is fricking stupid on enemies with multiple turns to themselves.
If it had a rebalance and the QoL features from Apocalypse it would be the perfect fricking game...
SMT is easily the most overrated jrpg series of all time. SJ is the only one worth playing and it's not even good.
>repulsive moeblob image
>abominable 80IQ moron opinion
uh huh
IVA and V have the most consistent difficulty throughout. V drops the ball at the final boss though. Meanwhile SJ gets much easier later on, but the final boss is a difficulty spike.
Nah that would be Nocturne. 4A is mostly consistent but when the difficulty spikes, it spikes. V is a grindy shit game that should never be recommended (and a rerelease just got confirmed today so there's literally no point in getting into it now) but on the topic of difficulty all you can divide them into is segments where you have to grind and segments where you might not have to grind.
Nocturne doesn't really have any noticeable dry spells in difficulty. The earlygame will kick your ass, the midgame will kick your ass, the endgame becomes a bit easier because you can make yourself immune to everything but then ramps back up for a few fights and the final boss is SJ tier hard.
It depends for Nocturne, if you play on normal or hard. If you play on normal only gimmick bosses might give you trouble until you learn their gimmick. The only required bosses that may give you trouble is Matador, maybe Hell Rider. Anyone else is because you didn't diversify your attack types.
Yeah Normal is a joke mode and turns it into something easier than a lot of RPGS, was referring to hard. The rerelease's game journalist mode can also literally be autobattled without recruiting any demons and you'll only struggle if the enemy nulls phys in some way
What are you talking about delusional homosexual lmao, Nocturne is IV level past early game. You referring to V as grindy only shows how bad you are at video games.
>60 levels underleveled for a fight in smt iv
>can win if you bring the right demons
>4 levels underleveled for a fight in smt v
>feels like a fricking superboss
Conversely,
>4 levels overleveled for a fight in smt v
>feels like a random encounter
The only time I felt like I had an issue with my levels and not my party comp was with Shiva.
SMT IV is just piss easy overall, so not a good comparison.
0/10 bait anyone who does a basic bit of digging will find that level is by leaps and bounds the most important stat in V damage calculations
This is completely wrong. IV is notorious for losing any semblance of difficulty after Medusa.
Strange Journey is the only SMT to hold its difficulty through most the game.
Anon said 4a and 5
SMT IV Apocalypse is superior to SMT IV and probably the best of all the SMT games period. Nocturne, IV, and V are all about equal after that.
Is there anything good in the SMT IV dlc or is it all pay to win crap and superbosses
the latter. 4A is where the DLC starts feeling like it's actually a worthwhile inclusion besides the grinding shit
I want to like 4A but they made a huge mistake making the whisper/affinity level of skills so powerful
I prefer IV to 2 and 3.
I still love the first one a lot, It had a feeling that only tbh kinda got.